Officers found her body in her apartment after relatives called to say they had not been able to contact her for two days. Perry had been stabbed and strangled, police said.

Cooper called 911 about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday from a different apartment at the complex and said he had tried to kill himself, police said.

He was arrested Wednesday evening at a hospital where he had been sent for a psychiatric evaluation, according to police.

Cooper had been charged with battery against Perry in March 2010, according to Kane County court records. The documents said Perry was the mother of one of Cooper’s children. Perry had a second child in October, police said.

Perry’s two daughters, ages 2 years and 2 months, are currently in DCFS custody.

DCFS officials said today the children were removed from their parents after an investigation determined that child abuse had occurred, but would not discuss the nature of the abuse.

Perry’s mother, Yvette Strawder, said the oldest child was taken away in 2009 when she was an infant after her arm was broken. The second child, born in October, was taken away after DCFS officials learned that Cooper was the father and was still living with Perry, she said.

Strawder of Montgomery said she pleaded with her daughter to leave Cooper after seeing her daughter with bruises and black eyes, but her daughter refused.

Strawder was standing outside her daughter’s apartment when police found her body, and knew something was wrong when she was asked to wait in the lobby, she said.

“When I left that hallway, to go into the elevator, I screamed, because I knew that my daughter was dead,” Strawder said.

Cooper was ordered to serve a term of probation and undergo counseling after the 2010 battery incident, but didn’t complete the requirements and a warrant was issued for his arrest, records indicate.